A Marathon Oil Corp. unit has closed farmouts under which Total SA acquired 35% working interests in the Harir and Safen blocks northeast of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Harir covers 174,000 acres and Safen covers 105,000 acres. Marathon remains operator with 45% working interest in each block. A Total subsidiary will become operator of any development on Safen. The Kurdistan Regional Government continues to have a 20% carried interest in each block.

Marathon is shooting 2D seismic on both blocks. The surveys are to be complete by the end of the third quarter of 2012.

Marathon spudded the first exploratory well on Harir on July 30 and will be exploring Mesozoic fractured carbonates with main reservoir objectives in the Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic formations. The first exploratory well on Safen is planned for the first half of 2013.